Personal information management (PIM) software has made great strides in recent years. People use PIM software everyday to manage their email, tasks, calendars, and contacts, among other information. Businesses rely heavily on PIM software as well. However, as users manage more and more information in PIM software, it becomes more difficult for users to ascertain critical information from non-critical information. That is, users suffer from information overload, and it becomes more difficult for users to differentiate what they need to know “right now,” versus what can wait for some time in the future. In addition, while individuals may use PIM software for personal use, many users are reluctant to use PIM software in their personal lives, as opposed to their business or professional lives, because the use of PIM software in and of itself makes those users feel as if they are “at work.”
Some PIM software applications have attempted to address the information overload problem by presenting users with a screen that attempts to present only currently relevant information. For example, the Microsoft® Outlook® brand PIM includes an “Outlook Today” view, which presents the user with three different lists, one each for upcoming calendar events, incomplete tasks, and a count of unread email messages. However, Microsoft® Outlook® does not filter the information to a degree useful to many users. For example, Microsoft® Outlook® displays all calendar events within the next 4 days, regardless of importance. If a user has more calendar events within the next 4 days than fit on the screen, Microsoft® Outlook® still lists them all, and the user must scroll the screen to review them. As another example, Microsoft® Outlook® displays all as yet unfinished tasks in the Outlook Today screen. Again, if more tasks are unfinished than fit on one screen, Microsoft® Outlook® still lists them all, and the user must scroll the screen to review them. Finally, with respect to email, Microsoft® Outlook® only lists the number of read and/or unread messages; the Outlook Today screen does not provide email subject or sender information. Thus, a user must review three different lists, and combine and filter the lists based on the user's own knowledge of each item, to figure out what is relevant information, because the Outlook Today screen does not provide a sufficiently filtered single list.
In addition to the above, many PIM software applications are not suited for a 10-second user interface. A 10-second user interface generally refers to a user interface where a user can learn the information he or she is looking for in an extremely short period of time, e.g., under a minute and, ideally, in about 10 seconds. Summary screens on current PIM software, such as the Outlook Today screen, are overloaded with information through which a user must parse, and are unsuitable for a 10-second user interface.